The current book being discussed was entitled Wounded by
Love, the Life and Wisdom of St. Porphyrois. I discovered this book online some months ago
when poking around the web for support/help/wisdom in regard to my hearing
issues. An inspiring quote from St.
Porphyrois popped up during my search, so I ordered the book and found the
first half (documenting St. Porphyrois’ life) interesting, and the second half
(documenting his wisdom) especially stimulating, enlightening, challenging, and
encouraging. Anyway, it was fun to hear
what some of Fritz jr’s colleagues were thinking in response to it.
My most special “warm fuzzy” for the day occurred when some
of the boys arrived home from school at noon - their school day is like an
American half-day, mornings only. I'm guessing one fair-skinned,
light-eyed orphan named Adrian (not sure if my spelling is correct) is around 10 years old. He’d been in the ER the evening of our arrival following
a fairly involved injury to his hand, and I’d spoken with him (via translation)
when he stopped by the house the following day.
As I approached him, he still favored his heavily bandaged hand while
slinging a book bag with his good one.
“So how’s your hand?
Does it still hurt?” Although
unable to speak Spanish, I gestured and reached out to mock-stroke his hand while
wearing a worried look on my face, and hoped he knew what I meant.
At the time he sidestepped me and headed straight for
Maddie, one of the nurturing staff women who no doubt serves as a sort of
mother figure. But after a few words with
her he turned and approached me with a sweet smile and initiated a big bear hug
– not just a quick-and-polite little weak one, but a serious
I-want-you-to-feel-loved big one. I kissed
the top of his head briefly, and melted internally on the spot as he turned to
go. Sooooo sweet.
Lunch prep was in process, so I stopped in to watch for a few minutes. Chile Rellenos were on the menu - a time-intensive special treat served only four times a year.
It seemed a good afternoon to be outside and get some
exercise, so we tackled a few yard-related chores around Fritz jr’s house. My particular focus involved cleaning/weeding
mature perennial succulents growing in profusion near the front door. In the process I discovered attractive rocks
hidden beneath these plants, and used them as edging. Also some artsy rocks wired together like
insects, and snails hiding in the shade during the day that typically come out to climb
cool glass windowpanes at night.
Unexpected rain pounded us for almost an hour later in the
afternoon, changing hard-packed earth to sticky mud. Fritz jr. warned us about
“peanut butter shoes,” and even before very much
rain had fallen we were clomping around with thick mud-cakes affixed to our
soles. As a result of the deluge, Fritz
jr. received a couple of calls to rescue staff vehicles that were stuck in mud
on back dirt roads, a fairly common occurrence in the rainy season. Both times he was successful to free them without
his own vehicle getting stuck – whew!
After dinner, Kevin (a 16-year-old orphan) stopped by to
chat for about an hour - with Fritz jr. translating, of course. I was impressed
by this young man with dark eyes as deep as the ocean – his calm demeanor,
realistic and honest approach to life (“I hope someday to like school, but
right now there’s nothing about it I like”), and passion for photography that enables
him to capture striking moments in nature.
He is using a camera donated by
our older son, John, and seems to be gifted with an innate photographic knack. Before leaving our house (curfew for the boys
on weekends is 9:00 p.m. rather than 8:00 as on school nights), he showed us a
picture of an burrowing owl that has been living in a fire pit on the orphanage
property. I thought it so touching that
he invited the two Fritzes to join him for some early-morning bird watching the
next day to see if they could spot the owl face-to-face – a Tijuana-style
Audubon outing!
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